H.R. 429: Rosie the Riveter Commemorative Coin Act

H.R. 429 directs the U.S. Mint to strike three coins during a single year starting January 1, 2028: a $5 gold coin, a $1 silver coin, and a half-dollar. Production is capped at 50,000 gold, 400,000 silver, and 750,000 half-dollars, in both proof and uncirculated finishes.

Every sale carries a surcharge on top of the purchase price — $35 on the gold coin, $10 on the silver, $5 on the half-dollar. Sell out every coin and that comes to $6,750,000. All of it goes to the Rosie the Riveter Trust to help the National Park Service maintain and repair the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park, and to pay for education and commemorative programs. The trust has to open its books to a federal audit for the money it receives.

None of that comes out of the Treasury: buyers cover the face value, the surcharge, and every dollar of design, materials, machinery, overhead, marketing, and shipping. The bill goes a step further and bars Treasury from releasing a cent of surcharge money to the trust until the government has recouped its full cost. Collectors can preorder before the coins exist, and bulk buyers get a discount.

The designs are not left open. They have to be emblematic of the legacy of the diverse women workforce who supported the home front, carry the year 2028, and be chosen after consultation with the Rosie the Riveter Trust and the Commission of Fine Arts, then reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. The bill's findings describe women who riveted airplane parts, drove street cars, rolled bandages, and worked shipyards and rationing boards, and note that Black, Latina, Indigenous, Asian American, and Pacific Islander workers faced racial discrimination and segregation on top of it.